Longtime feud still simmers in Seville

Sunday

Jan 20, 2013 at 7:54 PMJan 20, 2013 at 9:05 PM

Seventh generation West Volusian Mary Lee Prevatte — whose family has owned land near Seville since the 1860s and whose neighbors twice in 2010 accused her of grand theft — is no stranger to the legal system.

MARK I. JOHNSONSTAFF WRITER

Seventh generation West Volusian Mary Lee Prevatte — whose family has owned land near Seville since the 1860s and whose neighbors twice in 2010 accused her of grand theft — is no stranger to the legal system. In fact, the number of civil and criminal claims she's filed and the accusations she's tried to deflect are nothing short of prolific. Over the past 17 years, Volusia County Sheriff's Office and court records show the 65-year-old Seville resident has been in the eye of a storm of litigation, dozens of charges and counter-charges. Currently, she faces a charge of felony grand theft for renting property that prosecutors say was not hers to rent. The majority of the criminal allegations filed against her were never prosecuted and never went to court, but in November a jury found Prevatte not guilty of stealing four of her neighbor's goats. So why are Prevatte and her neighbors so often in legal turmoil? Prevatte said at its core, the legal feuding is an effort to force her off land she has owned for 35 years and that has been in her family for a century and a half. "This whole thing stems from me stopping their subdivision," Prevatte said of her successful opposition in November 2007 to a rezoning of 55 acres purchased in 1995 by KHD Ltd., along with retired Daytona Beach resident and surgeon Dr. Craig Hankins and his wife, Sharon Hankins. That acreage is directly west of her property at the end of bumpy, two-wheeled-rut-in the grass Prevatt Road. Volusia County planning officials said there are no current applications for development of the property on file. Prevatte said the Hankinses want her lakefront access. "I would not sell out to them," Prevatte said. "I am not going to sell to them for any reason." The Hankinses did not respond to numerous attempts to contact them for comment. Their attorney, Jeffrey Brock, also declined to comment citing the on-going litigation. In court records, Prevatte claims the Hankinses or their agents have threatened her, denied her access to her property, and falsely accused her of animal cruelty and numerous other criminal activities in an effort to get her to leave her land. Prevatte is a farmer and rancher who has raised goats and horses on the horse-apple-strewn property that was once a family fernery and citrus grove. Prevatte also is the elected chairwoman of the Volusia Soil and Water Conservation District board. Prevatte also claims to have served as an officer with the Atlanta, Ga., Police Department and to have attended law school at Emory University in Atlanta. However, checks with both organizations failed to turn up any records of such employment or attendance, to which Prevatte responded that both those endeavors were conducted under a pseudonym because at the time she was involved in undercover narcotics work for the government. Despite her deep roots in Seville, she has her detractors in the small farm community she calls her ancestral home. "I have lived in Seville for 50 years and know pretty much everybody," said resident Annette Robinson. "Mary Lee Prevatte has done nothing for the community. She is a troublemaker who doesn't have a friend in Seville." Several other residents interviewed for this story wouldn't speak publicly about Prevatte or even acknowledge knowing her well enough to say anything. However, she does have her supporters. "She is intensely loyal and passionate about her heritage," said Spruce Creek Fly-In resident Wayne Wallin, who identified himself as a friend. Another friend and supporter, Tom McGurn of Daytona Beach, calls Prevatte "a well-meaning dedicated person . . . dedicated to things she should be dedicated to, particularly Seville community history and her family's history."

A LEGACY OF PREVATTES

There have been Prevattes in West Volusia for more than a century and a half. Prevatte describes herself as a lover of history, particularly the history of her family in Seville, a community with more ferns and livestock than people. Her great-great-great grandfather Joseph Prevatte came to Seville in the 1860s after his father, Judge James Prevatt, Volusia County's first judge, settled the Lake Helen/Enterprise area in 1847, according to the History of Volusia County and Volusia: the West Side. Prevatte said her grandfather operated a citrus grove and fernery on the property until she resettled the land almost 35 years ago. When she isn't restoring her grandfather's house for a possible bed and breakfast, she said she is writing a book about the Prevattes in Seville. But more than anything, Prevatte said she is a lover of the land. "I can get high on life just standing on my property," she said. That property, Prevatte believes, is at the root of most of her legal troubles. Most recently, those battles focused on property Prevatte claims as part of her original homestead, but that courts and land surveys have determined are part of the Hankins' holdings. In a lawsuit filed in 2011, Prevatte attempted to overturn a 1999 court ruling that four acres directly west of her property belong to the Hankins and not her. The suit also attempts to force the removal of fences around the Hankins' property, which Prevatte said encroach on her land. "(Prevatte) lost this case and is attempting another bite at the apple," the Hankins attorney, Jeffrey Brock, stated in the reply to Prevatte's complaint. "The fence was constructed along the boundary line established by this court." Brock declined to comment further, citing the ongoing litigation. As part of that litigation, records show the court denied a temporary injunction seeking removal of the barriers, thus shooting down Prevatte's contention the fences blocked her access to her property. A portion of this property was at the center of a criminal complaint filed by Craig Hankins in 2010 that claimed Prevatte rented a site — for $200 per month — to a woman for placement of her RV, while knowing the land did not belong to her. He accused Prevatte of grand theft and scheming to defraud for depriving him the use and value of his land. On Jan. 3, Judge Margaret Hudson ruled the allegation of grand theft should go before a jury at trial in February, but agreed with Prevatte's attorney that there was no fraud involved, thus dismissing that count.

SEA OF ACCUSATIONS

Among the many accusations Prevatte has made are applications — six total, all denied — for injunctions for protection from "repeat violence" filed against the Hankinses and people Prevatte calls their employees — Charles Behm, Marg Holder, Tommy Richard and Herb McLain — in both 2010 and 2012. In those documents, Prevatte claims she has been threatened at gunpoint, run off the road and prevented from entering her property, as well as being "harassed" and "spied on." In each of the six injunction applications, the court found the facts alleged were insufficient to support the requested protection orders and they were dismissed without a hearing, court records show. Volusia County Sheriff's Office and court records also show Prevatte filed criminal complaints against the Hankinses and their associates, including one in September for vandalism. In her complaint Sept. 10, 2012, Prevatte alleged Craig Hankins cut or damaged her telephone lines. "As in the past, this is an ongoing civil property dispute," sheriff's Investigator Brian Cobb concluded in the report. "At this time it is impossible to determine if a crime has been committed due to the two litigants bickering over property lines in civil court." The report goes on to say the Hankinses have the property in question fenced and in their possession, which is the reason for the complaint by Prevatte. In that report, Cobb said he told Prevatte on many different dates and times that when the civil lawsuit is over and the property has one established owner, then the Sheriff's Office can determine who committed a crime or if a crime has been committed, the report states. Until then, the case is closed.

'PEOPLE THINK IT'S A JOKE'

Prevatte said in the past three years alone she has called the Sheriff's Office 150 times about issues she has had with her neighbors, but nothing is done. "All this is documented, but people think it is a joke," she said. "I have done everything I know to do." Sheriff's reports show several criminal complaints filed against Prevatte as well. Sheriff's spokesman Gary Davidson offered summaries of complaints against the widow that go back to December 2009 when a neighbor, Thomas Richard, accused her of punching him in the face after he claimed he caught her trespassing on his property and stealing lumber. The State Attorney's Office did not prosecute that battery charge, Davidson said. A similar decision was made on four other occasions in 2010 and 2011 on allegations of failing to sufficiently feed her horses and knowingly giving false information to a law enforcement officer. The back and forth has filled civil court calendars as well. A review of public records for the 7th Judicial Circuit shows Prevatte as a litigant in 14 suits going back to 1986. This includes the repeat violence injunctions. Some of Prevatte's legal battles cross from the civil to the criminal courts, as did allegations of illegally renting Hankins' property as her own, in addition to the unsuccessful prosecution in November for the grand theft of goats. Prevatte has also run up against county officials. Volusia County code enforcement department records show she has amassed more than $51,000 in fines for two violations related to having mobile homes on her property. Prevatte said the violations would not exist if she had been allowed access to right-of-way easements she claims have been blocked by fences erected by the Hankinses. However, the judge in her 2011 lawsuit about the easements denied a request to open the right-of-way, saying the fences had been in place for years and Prevatte uses an alternate route to access the property. Even with the multitude of accusations against her, as well as her own legal setbacks, Prevatte said more lawsuits and complaints are in the works. "I will never give up my property," she said.